Undergraduate Review Volume 10 Issue 1 Article 8 1997 Feminist Literature: Confessional Writing Beyond National Boundaries Heather Blaha '98 Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/rev Recommended Citation Blaha '98, Heather (1997) "Feminist Literature: Confessional Writing Beyond National Boundaries," Undergraduate Review: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/rev/vol10/iss1/8 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. Blaha '98: Feminist Literature: Confessional Writing Beyond National Bounda :IE UNDERGRADUATE REVIEW WORKS CITED Jsychological Visibility." Friendship, A 'ility. Ed. Neera Kapur Badhwar. Ithaca: Press, 1993. 65-72. endship." Friendship, A Psychological "a Kapur Badhwar. Ithaca: Cornell University Feminist Literature: Confessional ;4. Writing Beyonjd National Boundaries and Other Loves." Friendship, A ,ility. Ed. Neera Kapur Badhwar. Ithaca: Press, 1993. 48-64. Heather OJ/aha Throughout feminist politics of the 1900s, feminist writing has emerged as a strong and significant chorus of voices. Women have been heard from as far away as Japan, where in 1911 Seitoscha was formed as an independent feminist group. The same year, South African Olive Schreiner wrote Woman and Labour, establishing a connection between feminism and equal rights. More than thirty years later the Egyptian Feminist Party was founded by Fatma Nimat Rashid which followed Virginia Woolf's writing of A Room oi One 's Own and helped lead the way for Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex in 1949. Many British and American organizations began their foundations as well, and soon most women, and some men, could see that feminist literature was join­ ing in a common goal across the globe. Women of all nationalities and races began responding powerfully to the social and political times sur­ rounding them and since the 1960s their individual yet unifying effort has led to some of the most influential writings of the twentieth century. Although this writing has taken on various forms by various women, perhaps the deepest story lies in the personal narrative which expresses truth beyond fiction and which connects and paves the literary road for women writers who follow. In Beyond Feminist Aesthetics, two kinds of feminist narrative of Published by Digital Commons @ IWU,39 1997 1 Undergraduate Review, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [1997], Art. 8 40 THE UNDERGRADUATE REVIEW FEMINIST LITERA1 self-discovery are discussed. The first is characterized by a historical must do this work; for woman alone can u structure in which female self-discovery is seen as a process of moving depth, the length and the breadth of her 0\ outward into the public realm of society-often represented in realist Through the campaigning of American we feminist fiction. The second is a depiction of self-discovery as an awak­ ment, and educational rights, the cause soc ening to an inner self that occurs in nature or of which the social world Europe as well, and feminists from all ove is not a part. Most of the feminist literature, autobiographies, and mem­ tional alliances. oirs that I would like to focus on, however, are in fact created from the Although the majority o,f, what is cor many social changes and frustrations that women encounter throughout was written after the 1960s, early feminist I:, their lives. To disregard society in their writing would be to disregard i as crucial a starting point, even though the Ii, parts of history, and that is truly impossible since women, men, politics, instantly been quite as strong. After the pa writings, and families of the past are what have shaped these women's vote, much discussion of feminism had en lives. Woolf continued with their quest and with Both feminist literature and feminist politics organize the meaning the first-wave feminism, believed that "wo of the liberation of women as a group through individual conceptions of within their social groups and that such a ~ history and experience. In Writing as Re-Vision, Adrienne Rich writes: sign of victimization but a means of provi( We need to know the writing of the past, and know it differently organization between women and thus a c( than we have ever known it; not to pass on a tradition but to break (Humm 21). With Woolf's basic argumen1 its hold over us. Re-vision-the act of looking back, of seeing ly constructed and that inequality begins ei with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direc­ family, her highly influential book, A Roor. tion-is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an show today's women the social and physic act of survival. sess. Rich sees that the crucial element towards moving forward, towards In one part of A Room ofOne's Own understanding the shape of one's written experience now, can only be have been like if Shakespeare had had a si~ accomplished when this re-vision occurs. Women should not only learn She was as adventurous, as imaginati and break past traditions out of the necessity of survival, but out of their as he was. But she was not sent to Sl desire to understand and link themselves to a past which continues to learning grammar and logic, let alom shape today's writing as well. Virgil. She picked up a book now ar: Before digging deeply into feminist texts, it seems crucial to touch perhaps, and read a few pages. But t on the historical and political events that in fact led to such writings. told her to mend the stockings or mi. The world's first organized movement in behalf of women was inaugu­ about with books and papers. (51) rated in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. There, Elizabeth Cady So many social obstacles would have prev. Stanton delivered her first public speech, saying that she was "nerved" . of the talent she had. For a woman to writ only by her conviction that the time had come for "the question of room of her own so that what she could of woman's wrongs to be laid before the public" and that "woman herself world has the room to flourish and expand https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/rev/vol10/iss1/8 2 ... I Blaha '98: Feminist Literature: Confessional Writing Beyond National Bounda ~HE UNDERGRADUATE REVIEW FEMINIST LITERATURE 41 :sed. The first is characterized by a historical must do this work; for woman alone can understand the height, the e self-discovery is seen as a process of moving depth, the length and the breadth of her own degradation" (Schneir ix). :ealm of society-often represented in realist Through the campaigning of American women for their legal, employ­ :ond is a depiction of self-discovery as an awak­ ment, and educational rights, the cause soon was taken up in western it occurs in nature or of which the social world Europe as well, and feminists from all over eventually formed interna­ e feminist literature, autobiographies, and mem­ tional alliances. focus on, however, a~e in fact created from the Although the majority 0,[ what is considered feminist literature j frustrations that women encounter throughout was written after the 1960s, early feminists and their writings were just society in their writing would be to disregard as crucial a starting point, even though their impact may not have •is truly impossible since women, men, politics, instantly been quite as strong. After the passing of the women's right to 'the past are what have shaped these women's vote, much discussion of feminism had ended, but authors like Virginia Woolf continued with their quest and with their writing. Woolf, part of ature and feminist politics organize the meaning the first-wave feminism, believed that "women constituted a sex-class len as a group through individual conceptions of within their social groups and that such a grouping was not simply a [n Writing as Re-Vision, Adrienne Rich writes: sign of victimization but a means of providing women with the germ of the writing of the past, and know it differently organization between women and thus a coherent and radical politics" known it; not to pass on a tradition but to break (Humm 21). With Woolf's basic argument that gender identity is social­ te-vision-the act of looking back, of seeing ly constructed and that inequality begins early in the male dominated , entering an old text from a new critical direc­ family, her highly influential book, A Room of One's Own, continues to n more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an show today's women the social and physical dominance which men pos­ sess. II element towards moving forward, towards In one part of A Room of One's Own Woolf writes of what it may :of one's written experience now, can only be have been like if Shakespeare had had a sister: .re-vision occurs. Women should not only learn She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world s out of the necessity of survival, but out of their as he was.